Azimut Magellano 66 Review, Two Generations and What They Cost

The Azimut Magellano 66, and why two different boats share the badge

The Azimut Magellano 66 is the Italian builder's answer to a buyer who wants trawler manners without trawler speed limits. It premiered at the Cannes Yachting Festival in 2015, and it is still on Azimut's current Magellano list today, sitting below the Magellano 25 Metri, 27M and 30 Metri as the most compact of the big long-range boats now that the Magellano 60 has arrived beneath it.

That continuity hides an important detail for shoppers. YachtBuyer splits the model into a first generation built from roughly 2014 to 2021 and a second generation from 2021 onward, and Motor Boat & Yachting toured the new version at Cannes in 2022, noting its revised window line and sleeker superstructure. The early boats run twin Volvo Penta D13 800s and wear exterior styling by Cor D. Rover; the current boat runs twin MAN i6 850s and is credited on Azimut's own data sheet to the in-house design team. Both are semi-displacement flybridge yachts of 66 feet 1 inch, and both can be ordered or found with the Navetta main deck that walls off the galley and helm for crew.

If you are shopping for a Magellano 66 for sale, the first question is which one, because a Volvo boat and a MAN boat can be 1.3 million dollars apart on asking price.

Bill Dixon's Dual Mode idea, redrawn with two chines

Every Magellano descends from the Magellano 74 of 2010, whose hull was drawn by British naval architect Bill Dixon: full, rounded sections forward, a long protective skeg, and broad chine flats aft that let a heavy boat climb onto a semi-plane. Azimut calls the concept Dual Mode, meaning the hull should be as comfortable at displacement speed as it is at 20 knots.

The 66 was the first to rework that form. Motor Boat & Yachting's 2016 test explains that Azimut and Pierluigi Ausonio gave this hull two chines and made it less rounded than the earlier Magellanos, and Azimut now describes it as a double-chine semi-planing hull with a vertical bow. MBY's 2022 tour points out the payoff of that plumb stem and transom: waterline length is close to overall length, which buys interior volume and efficiency across a wide speed band. Azimut claims about a 20 percent fuel saving over a conventional planing hull between 15 and 22 knots, and uses carbon fiber in the upper structure to keep the center of gravity low on a yacht that displaces about 102,000 pounds at full load.

Open plan or Navetta, the decision that shapes the whole main deck

The main deck is a single level from the cockpit to the helm. In the open version, the salon, dining area, galley and lower helm flow together, with the layout arranged so crew can still move through without crossing the guests' sightline. The Navetta version goes further: a bulkhead encloses the galley and wheelhouse forward, accessed directly from the side deck door, and an amidships stair lets the crew work, eat and reach their quarters without ever passing through the salon. Azimut adds that the Navetta arrangement frees extra space for provisions.

Which layout is right depends on how the boat will be run. Owner-operators who cook for themselves tend to dislike the Navetta wall because it isolates the cook; families with a full-time captain and stew love it. Note that MBY observed the high bulwarked side decks, which make moving around very safe, also make the salon feel slightly narrower than on an equivalent 66-foot planing flybridge, an honest trade for the protection.

Outside, the cockpit dining table is wrapped by a long sofa, the foredeck carries a second lounge, and the flybridge, which MBY called vast, runs back to the transom with a wet bar and a shower built into the hardtop.

Below decks, a full-beam master, a bow VIP and real crew quarters

Azimut lists three or four guest cabins with berths for six to eight, three guest heads, and a crew cabin with its own head. The full-beam master is amidships under the long hull windows, the VIP is forward, and the remaining cabins share the third head. YachtBuyer's description of the four-cabin plan is candid: it is really three plus one, because the smallest cabin has bunks and will often serve as a storage room. MBY's 2022 tour counted four cabins, three bathrooms and a fairly decent en suite crew cabin in the stern.

Storage is where the 66 earns its long-range label. MBY found every locker, wardrobe and drawer larger than expected, and the full-height engine room amidships makes weeks aboard far easier than on most planing yachts of this length.

What 800 or 850 horsepower actually delivers

Do not buy a Magellano 66 expecting 30 knots. MBY's lightly loaded first-generation test boat on twin Volvo D13 800s topped out at 23.3 knots, and the magazine judged it happy at any speed from 10 to 20 knots. YachtBuyer's data for the same generation lists a 17.7-knot cruise and a maximum range of 886 nautical miles at 9.6 knots; MBY rounded it to about 1,000 miles at 9 knots on 4,500 liters (1,189 gallons) of fuel.

The more interesting numbers are comparative. At 9 knots, MBY measured the Magellano burning 23 percent less fuel than a full-displacement Nordhavn 63, and at an 18-knot fast cruise it used 20 percent less than a deep-V Fairline Squadron 65 at the same speed. That is the Dual Mode promise in practice: not trawler economy at trawler speed and planing speed at planing economy, but a hull that is not embarrassed by either.

For the current boat, Azimut quotes up to 24 knots and a cruise of up to 19 knots on the MAN i6 850s under ISO 8666 conditions. We have not seen an independent instrumented test of the second generation with an rpm and fuel table, so treat those as builder figures.

Telling a 2017 boat from a 2022 boat on the dock

The quick checks are mechanical and visual. Open the engine room: Volvo D13s mean a first-generation boat, MAN i6 850s on V-drives mean the current one. Outside, the newer boat has the revised window line and cleaner superstructure MBY described in 2022, while the early hull carries Cor D. Rover's original profile. Beam is quoted slightly differently too: MBY's 2016 data gives 17 feet 10 inches for the first generation, while Azimut lists 18 feet 2 inches for today's boat.

Listing text is not always reliable, so ask for the hull identification number, build year and engine serials and compare the deck plan with Azimut's drawings.

• Gen 1, about 2015 to 2021: Volvo Penta D13 800 hp, Cor D. Rover exterior, 23-knot top end in MBY's test
• Gen 2, 2021 onward: MAN i6 850 hp on V-drives, in-house Azimut styling, up to 24 knots claimed
• Both: 66 feet 1 inch LOA, 1,189 gallons of fuel, Dual Mode hull, open or Navetta main deck

Magellano 66 price, new and on the brokerage market

Searches for the Azimut Magellano 66 price new usually hit a wall because Azimut quotes through dealers. MBY listed its 2016 test boat at a little over 2.1 million euros ex VAT and the 2022 boat at £2.16 million; a US-commissioned 2026 build with Seakeeper, hardtop and tender lands, by our estimate, between 3.4 and 4.2 million dollars.

Brokerage prices tell a cleaner story. Yachting reported a fully loaded 2017 boat, Pura Vida, cut by $100,000 to $2.795 million when it was only months old, which shows how quickly the first owners took a hit. By 2026 YachtBuyer was tracking a 2017 Volvo boat at $1.49 million duty paid and a 2022 boat in La Spezia at about $2.83 million, and noted that first-generation boats sit on the market longer and sell about 11 percent below their initial asking price. A 2021 boat listed by Allied Marine in North Miami asked $2.6 million.

Price the two generations as different models: a well-kept Volvo boat is the value play, a MAN boat holds its money better.

Living with a 66-foot semi-displacement yacht

Budget for a yacht of this size, not for a trawler. Dockage for a 66-footer with an 18-foot beam, insurance on a 2 to 3 million dollar hull, a part-time or full-time captain, generator and air conditioning service, bottom work and the occasional teak or flybridge refit will typically put annual costs between about $180,000 and $300,000 before fuel, depending on crew and cruising grounds.

Fuel is where the Dual Mode hull pays you back, but only at the speeds it was drawn for. Owners who cruise at 18 knots everywhere still spend close to planing-boat money. The 5-foot-7-inch draft at full load is Bahamas-friendly.